Objective Crew Served Weapon
The Objective Crew Served Weapon (OCSW) program was an effort to develop a lightweight portable crew-served weapon system that would use a 25mm family of ammunition (including programmable airburst munitions) at a cyclic rate of at least 250 rounds per minute, as well as to potentially replace the M2HB Browning and Mk 19 Mod 3 for light infantry and vehicles, aircraft, and ship weapons. It was proposed around the same time in 1994 as the OICW program by the JSSAP, with the contractor being Olin. Constituting the weapon subsystem portion of the Land Warrior program, the OCSW was a kind of integrated machine gun system coupling the firepower of airbursting munitions with optoelectronic fire control to provide all-environment operation and enhanced lethality. The original specifications called for a weapon weighing 32 pounds, including the mount, with a full-solution, day/night, all-weather fire control system that would be operationally insensitive to environment conditions. It would have up to 18 inches of tripod height when ground mounted and two-man portable, as well as being vehicle mountable. The weapon would fire at a cyclic rate of 260 rounds per minute in either semi- or fully-automatic modes, and be lethal and suppressive out to 2000 meters. The shot dispersion would be less than 1.0 mils, one sigma radius. The 25mm ammunition, which would be loaded in ammunition cans that can be mounted on and feeding into either the left- or right-hand side of the weapon, would include programmable airbursting rounds, as well as traditional high explosive, armor piercing, and training munitions. In January 2001, the JSSAP awarded Primex Technologies a $17 Million contract modification for the Advanced Technology Demonstrator Program for the OCSW system. This award raised the total contract value to $45.2 Million for the OCSW system development program. Three systems and advanced ammunition were scheduled to be delivered to the Aberdeen Test Center in June 2002 for technical, safety, and early operational assessment testing. In fiscal year 2003, the Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) program successfully transitioned from the OCSW Advanced Technology Demonstrator, its predecessor program. The weapon's key capabilities included the successful demonstration of the 25mm airbursting munitions, warheads, recoil management, and fire control required to increase the lethality of the weapon over the M2HB Browning and Mk 19 Mod 3 that it was slated to replace. It was subsequently designated as the XM307 ACSW. On January 7th, 2003, General Dynamics demonstrated a .50 BMG variant of the weapon, designated internally as the XM307K50. Initially, five components were different between the two weapons, and the performance and physical characteristics of the XM307K50 exceeded those of other crew-served .50 BMG weapons. It was subsequently designated as the XM312. The XM312 was intended as a fallback to the XM307, reducing overall cost to the ACSW program. Using existing .50 caliber ammunition increased the weapon's reliability. It leveraged the accuracy and lightweight characteristics of the XM307 to provide a highly-accurate .50 caliber weapon. As of early 2004, the ACSW had met the Advanced Technology Demonstrator exit criteria, and had entered the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. In 2004, resulting from the Common Close Support Weapon (CCSW) weapon trade study, the ACSW was chosen as the foundation for the Future Combat Systems (FCS) CCSW program. It was planned that the XM307/312 would be the dismounted infantry crew served weapon and defensive armament for seven variants of the Future Combat System. As of May 2005, the ACSW program was in the SDD phase with the U.S. Army's Program Executive Officer (PEO), who was in the process of developing a remotely-operated variant (ROV) for FCS manned and unmanned vehicles as part of the CCSW program. Project Manager Crew Served Weapons stated at the time that there was potential to accelerate the 25mm crew served variant and ammunition for Stryker brigades and ground force units, as well as type classification as standard of the .50 BMG ACSW variant. In 2008, the manned components of the FCS program were terminated, leading to the ACSW being shelved. The experience gained in the development of an advanced lighweight .50 caliber machine gun to replace the existing M2HB Browning lead to the development of what would become the XM806. Gallery OCSWprototype.jpg|OCSW prototype External Link(s) *Advanced Crew Served Weapon at Global Security.org *XM307 at FirearmsWorld.net (Chinese) Category:Programs